Despite sharply reducing his tournament activity, Gambit’s GM Vitaly Kunin proved his strength once again at the high-level Eurasia Open Cup held in Ekaterinenburg (Russia) from 31 July to 9 August 2019.

Vitaly scored 7.5 points out of 9 to get the 2nd place behind GM Sargsyan from Armenia, topping almost 200 participants, including 23 GMs and 19 IMs. Top seed and former Russian champion GM Evgeny Alekseev is found on place 11 of the final standings.

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On Saturday 22 June an invitational rapid tournament to honor the memory of Gambit Bonnevoie I captain Tim Upton has taken place in Foyer Européen, Luxembourg. The tournament has been organized by our club and the Chess club of the EU Institutions.

At the end of a hard-fought tournament, Gambit’s Steve Dishman prevailed. The second and third place went to GM Michael Hoffmann (Gambit) and IM Michael Wiedenkeller (Echternach), respectively, with our guests from Scotland, GM Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant, her husband Jonathan Grant and IM Craig Pritchett to follow closely.

A book of the most remarkable games by Tim Upton, annotated by Gambit top players and others, has been made available to the participants of our traditional barbecue on 23 June.

Gambit and the Chess Club of the European institutions would like to thank all the participants and the spectators, in particular our friends from Scotland, for creating a great ambiance which made the tournament memorable.

Sunday, 27 January 2019 at 11:00 a.m.

The International Solving Contest (ISC) is a chess problem solving competition centrally organised by the World Federation for Chess Composition (https://www.wfcc.ch). It is for individual solvers and takes place in multiple places worldwide on a Sunday at the end of January, simultaneously in all participating countries. It has been organised yearly since 2005, with the 15th ISC taking place in 2019, but for the very first time one of the venues will be in Luxembourg.

Format of Competition: 2 rounds of 6 problems (Categories 1 and 2)/single round of 6 problems (Category 3) Category 1 mainly for experienced solvers, but open to all solvers Category 2 for less experienced solvers Category 3 for children below 13 years

Detailed results of ISC 2018 together with the problems and solutions for all categories are available here: https://www.wfcc.ch/competitions/solving/isc18 (please consult also links at the bottom of the linked page) The same for ISC 2017 is available here: https://www.wfcc.ch/competitions/solving/isc17

The premises of the club are in the basement of the Hall Omnisports. There is a small public parking area opposite the entrance and some parking places in the surroundings streets (free on Sundays). The venue is reachable from the railway station (Gare Centrale) for example by bus 5, bus stop Wisestrooss. Comprehensive information about public transport in Luxembourg: https://www.mobiliteit.luPossibility of buying light refreshments at the venue, as well as of ordering sandwiches when registering.

Local Controller: Leif Winther

Participation: free of charge

Registration: not compulsory, but recommended (due to the capacity of the premises), by email to isc2019luxembourg@gmail.com(request for sandwiches by Wednesday, 23 January 2019).

Our players have won their second national Blitz Chess title in a row, emerging clear first ahead of Differdange and Bieles after 18 rounds of 3’ per player games with 2’’ increment. The tournament organised by CE Philidor Beggen offered a number of though battles among the participating teams.

The Luxembourg Chess League 2017/18 is over, with a final round on 25 March in Differdange which brought together all the participating teams for a colourful gran finale (RTL).

The balance for Gambit teams is mixed. Despite a fierce fight, Gambit Bonnevoie I was not able to defend our Luxembourg champions title, which returned to the Echternach team of the Luxembourg all-time-best GM Alberto David and chess legend GM Robert Hübner. Congratulations to Echternach for dominating this season! The clear second place gained by our players ahead of Dudelange qualifies us for the European Chess Club Cup in Porto Carras (Greece) later this year.

Gambit I (left) Dishman and GM Tratar facing Echternach in the final match (photo: www.lecavalier.lu)

Gambit II had to admit the superiority of Differdange II and finished third in the Promotion d’honneur, missing the chance of promotion to the highest division. Our players could not overcome the merciless laws of statistics reflected in an average Elo difference of 180 points.

The other Gambit teams gained significant experience for the next season, with our young players making good progress and putting into practice what they have learned so far.

Gambit Bonnevoie has ended its adventure at the European Club Cup in Antalya (Turkey) from 8 to 15 October 2017 on place 26. Our club was represented by GM Marko Tratar, Óskar Bjarnason, FM Jan Bednarich, FM Tim Upton (captain), Zoran Stanić, Roberto Visintin, Rytis Virbalis and Dans Vijups.

The “Champions league of chess” saw the triumph of the Russian team Globus with one of the strongest line-ups in the history of the competition (super GMs Kramnik, Mamyedarov, Grischuk, Karjakin, Giri, Nepomniachtchi, Korobov and Khismatullin, average rating 2772). Alkaloid from Macedonia (average rating 2724) and Odlar Yurdu from Azerbaijan (average rating 2634) got silver and bronze, respectively.

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